~terry
Sun, Dec 19, 2004 (06:48)
seed
On March 3, 1994 Bob Gustwick and George Wenzel transferred the domain
name austin.com from me to themselves without asking me or notifying me.
Later, when I discovered the illicit transfer the domain name registrar -
NetworkSolutions - offered me no recourse to regain the name that had been
taken from me by email forgery.
How could Gustwick and Wenzel to this? Easy. They were my Internet
provider at the time and were several notches more knowledgeable in system
administration and they had root access to my server.
The cost to me? Probably several million dollars.
Will they ever own up to their misdeed? Probably not. The last time I
confronted Bob Gustwick with this in person he was in total denial.
But I know Bob and George know what they did, no matter how vehemently
they deny it. Deep down inside they remember what they did and are
somehow rationalizing it to themselves.
Do I have any proof? No, because there is no paper or electronic trail at
Network Solutions. Was it ever recorded or published that I owned the
name? Yes, the O'Reilly Press published a book around this time listing
all domains know and I was listed as the owner.
Do I swear this is true? Yes.
Is there any hope I will ever get justice? Only if Bob and George decide
they want to honest men and own up to what they did. I hope this happens
someday.
~KarenR
Sun, Dec 19, 2004 (11:10)
#1
Ten years later this is coming up? Had you acted on it in a timely manner you might've had some recourse. But 10 years? I doubt it. There are paper trails for payments for the domain name. But you haven't been paying for the domain name for the past 10 years and obviously need to keep better records. With the O'Reilly book and your payment record (which always exist in some form somewhere), you would have a case.
Naturally, this is a lawsuit and I wouldn't take Network Solutions' word. Go to a lawyer. You can bring suit against not only the two men but Network Solutions. It should make no difference if the two men had root access to your server for a domain to be transferred out of your ownership. That has no bearing. If the two men had posed as you, that was fraud. Any lawyer will tell you that.
~terry
Tue, Dec 21, 2004 (04:23)
#2
What did did was clearly fraudulent. But proving it would be difficult. My only hope is that they'll wake up and admit their wrongdoing. If they have a conscience. We'll see. George and Bob may have a sliver of humanity in them, maybe they'll seek it out.
~cfadm
Sat, Jul 1, 2006 (20:28)
#3
Should say, what "they" did. They never fessed up.
Registrant:
Real/Time Communications
822 Brentwood St.
Austin, TEXAS 78757
US
Domain Name: AUSTIN.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
RealTime Communications gustwick@realtime.net
BOX 2966867
Sioux Falls, SD 57186
US
512-451-0046 fax: 512-459-3858
Record expires on 04-Mar-2014.
Record created on 03-Mar-1994.
Database last updated on 1-Jul-2006 20:27:24 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS.REALTIME.NET 205.238.128.39
NS2.REALTIME.NET 205.238.128.42
Gustwick still owns the name he stole from me.